Aussie telco Pivotel to bring the internet to 'virtually anywhere on the planet'

Peter Farquhar

Updated Mar 16, 2018 — 9.03am, first published at 8.58am

Australian telco Pivotel has jumped on the growing satellite constellation bandwagon, saying it will soon be able to provide internet coverage "from virtually anywhere on the planet".

Pivotel just signed on as a launch partner for Iridium Communications, the owner of a satellite constellation known as Iridium NEXT.

There are now four satellites in the NEXT constellation, and Iridium has pegged $3 billion to have another four join it this year.

Iridium Communications’ satellites aim to blanket the Earth. Supplied

Together, they will provide a service known as Iridium Certus. The company says it will provide "high speed mobile data coverage to the entire Earth, connecting oceans, deserts, airways and polar regions".

At Satellite 2018 in Washington, the world's largest global satellite tech event of the year, Pivotel announced it would be a launch partner for Iridium Certus.

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Pivotel CEO Peter Bolger said Certus would bring new opportunities to the telco industry in Australia, but particularly to those "enterprises, governments and individuals operating in rural and remote areas".

'The future of many regional businesses'

Using these small, lightweight antennas mounted on virtually any vehicle, Certus can offer speeds of up to 1.4Mbps while on the move to almost anywhere in the country:

The Thales MissionLink antenna designed to work with Certus is 33.34cm across and 7.6cm high, weighing 2.27kg.

Pivotel says its compression technology, which can reduce data used by emails, web pages and Skype by up to 80 per cent, would also result in "significant" cost savings for customers.

The Thales MissionLink antenna designed to work with Certus is 33.34cm across and 7.6cm high, weighing 2.27kg. Supplied

Those customers will include employees for State Emergency Services, rural fire, ambulance and police working remotely in the field.

"The productivity and safety benefits that will flow from Iridium Certus will help secure the future of many regional businesses," Mr Bolger said.

Pivotel will be the only Australian ISP to offer Iridium's services to standard 04 Australian mobile numbers. It says the service will be available from "mid-2018".